A high-speed world is bound to make people crash

Face time will eventually become a valuable commodity

Northumberland News

It's no wonder there's a demand for psychologists right now -- at least according to a co-worker.

Mike Johnston, managing editor of Durham Region's Metroland newspapers, recently returned from a university tour astounded by the number of students signing up for clinical psychologist studies, his son amongst them. But perhaps even more shocking, or maybe not so shocking, is the number of jobs which apparently exist for graduates. The professor he talked to assured him there were lots.

With the way people are running themselves ragged these days, it's really no surprise.

It's not just adults and people in the working world operating 24-7, it's kids too.

One of the stops on a recent United Way Seeing Is Believing Tour was to Kinark. During a round-table discussion about the services Kinark provides, including those to teens and parents, the issue of bullying came up and its online presence. The conversation led to the fact that kids are plugged into the world all the time now, even taking their phones to bed so they can stay up all night texting or Facebooking. The woman from Kinark ever so briefly touched on the fact that this in itself has all sorts of repercussions. It used to be that kids saw their friends at school, went home, had dinner, did homework, maybe talked on the phone for a bit, and went to bed. Now they can be together all the time.

Can you imagine the pressure of socializing all the time? Never turning off to the big world -- always just a buzz away from being sucked back into the realm of gossiping, worrying, and sharing all that head space with someone else. Doesn't anyone ever just veg out anymore or enjoy their own thoughts?

Those who went to high school in the 1990s might remember PG mail. Clarke High School on Hwy. 115 had it and for a brief while, there was an instant messaging feature. It didn't take long to drive both teachers and students trying to concentrate crazy and the function went away. Today, a large part of North America appears to be on this instant messaging system.

Everywhere you look, people are playing with their smart phones, but having one may not be such a smart thing after all.

The same thing seems to be happening to people that happens to appliances left on all the time: they break sooner and need professionals to help repair them.

Hypocritical? Perhaps. But the next time you're bored and reach for that smart phone, why not try looking around the room instead or sparking up a conversation with someone new? Who knows, it might actually be relaxing to just do some free-flow thinking instead of constantly responding to a high-speed world.

You watch, it won't be long until the ability to interact with others face-to-face is a marketable skill. Hang onto it while you still can.

--Crystal Crimi is managing editor for Northumberland News and The Independent